Seeking 'Opportunity Zones' Investments

"Louisville Metro Government has released an interactive map of the 19 census tracts in Louisville dubbed Opportunity Zones, an effort to point deep-pocketed investors to properties ripe for investment," according to an article by Caitlin Bowling.

The Opportunity Zones program was created as a part of the GOP tax reform bill approved in 2017. Since then, states have nominated qualifying census tracts for a new tax break for redevelopment investments. The U.S. Department of the Treasury designated 144 opportunity zones in Kentucky.

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer is clearly embracing the program, touting the "significant social impact" of investments encouraged by the program. In other state's, concerns have been raised about whether the Opportunity Zones program will provide investment steroids to gentrifying communities. Planetizen collected articles scrutinizing the potential impacts of the program in April 2018.

Bowling notes that despite Kentucky's designations, the state still lacks a lot of information about how Opportunity Zones will work: "The U.S. Department of the Treasury is expected to release regulations surrounding the Opportunity Zones program before the end of 2018."